This Week in KC for Nov. 24: Kenny Rogers, WWE Live Holiday Tour, the Schwag

If you haven’t already registered for this Thanksgiving morning experience, which begins at Pilgrim Chapel on Gillham Road, you can still sign up on race day to run or walk the 3.1-mile course. pilgrimrun.org. $40.

The annual gig by the Schwag might not rank with the nearly 90-year-old Plaza Lighting Ceremony, but it has become a Thanksgiving tradition for Kansas City nonetheless. The St. Louis group, founded in 1991, goes beyond being a Grateful Dead tribute band. As its website says, it is “dedicated to carrying on the vibe and music of the legendary Grateful Dead.” 816-753-8665. uptowntheater.com. $12.

OK, admit it. You like Christmas music. Well, this is your chance to enjoy the songs of the season before you’re tired of them. Lindsey McKee, LeShea Wright and Vigthor Zophoniasson will join pianist and emcee J. Kent Barnhart for performances of “Mary, Did You Know?” “O Holy Night,” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” and other classics. Runs through Dec. 24. 816-421-1700. qualityhillplayhouse.com. $35-$38.

Something of a 21st-century renaissance man, Henry Rollins is a musician, actor, writer, comedian, and radio and TV host. His visit to Kansas City is part of an 80-plus-stop North American spoken-word tour that began in October. Fans can expect him to mix commentary on politics with personal anecdotes. 816-753-8665. uptowntheater.com. $25-$39.50.

Conductor Bernard Labadie and pianist Robert Levin will join the Symphony for some classical classics. The program will feature overtures from two Mozart operas — “Don Giovanni” and “La Clemenza di Tito” — as well as Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto and Haydn’s Symphony No. 98. 816-471-0400. kcsymphony.org. $23-$78.

This concert will open the popular singer’s 35th — and final — Christmas & Hits tour, which interrupts his the Gambler’s Last Deal farewell tour. Rogers, who has sold more than 120 million albums worldwide, will perform holiday favorites and his biggest hits, with personal stories, photos and video clips mixed in. He will be joined by country singer Linda Davis. 816-442-6100. silversteineyecentersarena.com. $19.41-$99.95.

The Moscow Ballet troupe performing locally is one of two touring companies of 40 Russian dancers assembled specifically for tours of North America. Stanislav Vlasov, former soloist with the world-renowned Bolshoi Ballet, created the “Great Russian Nutcracker” in 1993, and the Moscow Ballet has been performing it throughout North America each holiday season since. 816-283-9921. nutcracker.com or midlandkc.com. $28-$175.

If you’re familiar with “Late Night Catechism,” which played last winter inside Starlight Theatre, you have an idea of what to expect from this new presentation of comic nuns. With the help of a youth choir and audience members, Sister tells the story of the Nativity as she tries to solve the mystery of what happened to the Magi’s gold. Runs through Dec. 18. 816-363-7827. kcstarlight.com. $36-$56.

Nothing says Thanksgiving quite like professional wrestling, so celebrate the holidays by watching large, sweaty men and women grab and toss one another. The Sprint website says the card will feature WWE champion Dean Ambrose taking on A.J. Styles in a World Championship Street Fight as well as Kane facing Bray Wyatt plus WWE women’s champion Becky Lynch. 816-949-7000. sprintcenter.com. $15-$100.

The Work Light Productions national tour of “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella,” which didn’t debut on Broadway until 2013, will stop for one performance in Lawrence. It’s based on a 1957 TV adaptation by Rodgers and Hammerstein of the popular fairy tale. Tatyana Lubov, a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, is slated to play Ella. 785-864-2787. lied.ku.edu. $21-$55.

The setting is a 19th-century Southern plantation. Most of the characters are slaves, but there also will be a Native American, a slave auctioneer and slave buyer. And, of course, it’s a comedy. The play, written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, is a takeoff of an 1859 melodrama called “The Octoroon,” but with actors wearing whiteface, blackface and redface. It will make you laugh but also think. Runs through Dec. 26. 816-531-7529. unicorntheatre.org. $30-$40.

Kansas City’s own George Wendt (Norm on “Cheers”) will star in this musical comedy about a small-town barbershop quartet that loses a member and needs to find a tenor just before a big competition. The replacement turns out to be atypical of small-town barbershop quartets, producing a classic fish-out-of-water story. Laughs ensue. Runs through Feb. 12. 913-649-7469. newtheatre.com. $34-$60.

This story was originally published November 23, 2016 at 8:00 AM with the headline "This Week in KC for Nov. 24: Kenny Rogers, WWE Live Holiday Tour, the Schwag."